victoria brooks

Through numerous gallery exhibitions and shows, art lovers around the world have come to admire and enjoy the art works of Victoria Brooks. She captures the essence of sun-drenched images typical of California in a vibrant, impressionistic style.

Victoria’s paintings are characterized by intimate moments set in romantic, richly conceived landscapes and seascapes. The result is a hauntingly personal connection with the viewer that resonates at the deepest emotional level. Her special talents are particularly evident in her expressive portraits where she reflects the mood and inner nature of her subjects.

After a successful career and many national awards as an art director in television and motion pictures, she pursued her love of painting, which she has been doing for 20 years.

In addition to being a talented studio artist, she is an accomplished plein air painter as well. She has won numerous “Best of Show” awards for her studio and plein air works. Victoria loves teaching oil and watercolor painting and is a favorite of art clubs for her informative art demonstrations. She teaches plein air painting workshops in California, Italy, France, Ireland and Greece.

Victoria is a Signature Member of the National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society (NOAPS) and the American Impressionist Society (AIS). She also is an Artist Member of the Oil Painters of America (OPA), California Art Club, Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, Plein Air Painters of New Mexico and Plein Air Painters of Hawaii.

Light and Spirit: The Figures of Victoria Brooks

Every painting is born of light. Look at five different paintings with five different subjects, and you’re looking at five different depictions of light. The artist Victoria Brooks puts it quite matter-­of-­factly: “Anytime you’re painting anything, you’re really painting the light ... how it falls and casts shadow.” Ms. Brooks’ portfolio is full of dazzling coastal scenes, and the prevalence of open sky and water in these pieces draws intense focus to the quality of light depicted, be it brilliant morning sunshine or soft evening twilight.

What Ms. Brooks calls “chasing the light” brings its own set of problems. “You have two hours,” she says. “Then the light has changed, and you’re painting something entirely different.” It requires patience, efficiency, and meticulous attention to detail. Those difficulties aside, capturing light effectively and accurately remains a straightforward, objective task.

Oftentimes, however, the light an artist chases is that which falls on a human figure. In those cases, it would seem mere objectivity would not-­-­could not-­-­suffice. The difficulty of successfully depicting humanity is something every artist of every discipline eventually faces. Everything else might seem right, but if the person in the painting or story or song doesn’t look, sound, feel like a human being, the work ultimately fails. For Ms. Brooks, these tasks-­-­capturing light and depicting humanity-­-­often become one. Her
works unerringly strive for warmth and goodness, effects achieved not only by the brilliant Pacific Coast sunlight, but by what she calls, simply, the “inner human glow” of her subjects
themselves. From a purely objective standpoint, it is merely the accurate recording of an external source of light, the way if reflects off skin and hair, passes through a flowing white garment, or
contrasts a softly shadowed countenance. But the overall effect is that of a second light source, one which comes from within her subjects, and it is this effect which makes these works warm,
relatable, spiritual, human.

Ms. Brooks’ is the subtle magic of the painter-­-­the endless rendering of material to immaterial and back again: pigment to light;; light to flesh;; flesh to feeling, emotion, spirit. It is all that we hope for in art.